Steel and other metals are often formed into rod stock and bundled into coils for transportation to processing sites that mass produce small metal articles such as nuts, bolts, screws, washers and a myriad of other small parts. The coils of rod often need to be drawn, re-sized, coated, rounded, or reshaped (i.e. converted into wire) before the wire is then cut into pieces where it is then forged, stamped or otherwise processed into a final article.
Consequently, the coils of rod are uncoiled in-line processed, and then recoiled after the desired in-line processing. The recoiling is most commonly done in two ways. One way is to have a draw capstan mounted for rotation about a vertical axis and a tubular frame mounted to and extending above the capstan for receiving the coils as they move from about the capstan. The plurality of coils can then be appropriately tied and unloaded from the tubular frame by lifting with an overhead crane or overhead conveyor.
A second way is by using a machine called a sidewinder draw machine that has a capstan rotatable about a horizontal axis and a frame affixed to the capstan and extending sideways therefrom. The coils after being formed on the capstan slide sideways onto the frame that rotates with the capstan. The coils then need to be compressed and strapped together. Because the stock can exceed one inch diameter and the diameter of a coil may exceed several feet, the manual labor used to compress the coils together and strap them into bundles is intensive and requires great exertion to pull and push the coils sideways on the frame due to the great weight of the coils.
A fork lift truck can then pick up the coils from the end of the frame. While a sidewinder provides advantages in eliminating the need for an overhead crane, the sidewinder requires much floor space to allow the fork lift to maneuver to the far distal end of the frame. Secondly, this floor space needed for the fork lift is remote from the floor space that is used by the fork lift to originally load the supply rod. The fork lift needs to be aligned near the axis of rotation of the capstan for picking up the coils as opposed to being laterally spaced from the axis of rotation for dropping off the supply coils. This requirement for two distinct spaces for the fork lift truck reduces the efficiency of the sidewinder. Furthermore, the manual labor needed to shift the coils is not needed in the other type of draw capstan.
Furthermore, turntable devices are often used to allow the continuous feeding of rod from supply coils to in-line processing lines. The turntable has a generally horizontal platform with an upwardly extending frame that rotates about a vertically oriented axis. The coils are mounted about the frame and as rod is drawn from the supply, the turntable is rotated. The turntable may be portable or stationary. Pivoting turntables have been developed to pivot the platform to a vertical direction to extend the frame horizontally in order to expedite the reception of coils directly from a fork lift.
What is needed is a recoiling system for rod and wire that provides for the efficiency of floor space of a vertical axis capstan recoiler but eliminates the need of a overhead crane or the need to lift the heavy coils over the frame. What is also needed is a recoiling system that incorporates a split sidewinder that includes a pivoting turntable that can receive coils from the capstan and be disengageable from the capstan and movable in multiple directions to allow ease in unloading of the coil bundles from the turntable.